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This is a really cool concept that is difficult to understand out of the gate. I'm not sure how to progress after leaving the initial cage thing. With something this unique, I think your average player will need you to start simpler, and very slowly ramp up the complexity. Portal is an excellent example. First room: walk through a portal; you win! Second room: grab a box and put it on a switch; you win! Third room: walk through a portal (at the right time), pickup a box, walk through the portal again (at the right time), put it on a switch; you win! It seems dumb when you look at it laid out like this, but there's a reason Portal is so widely acclaimed. By ramping up complex/unique mechanics over time, you ease the player into understanding the playspace possibilities. Then you can do all sorts of fun crazy stuff as the game goes on and player skill increases.

Also, the areas feel large for how slow the movement speed is on this.

If you choose to keep developing this game, playtest with other people frequently with an eye on usability and puzzle execution. For a game like this, there's no other way to get it right.

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Thank you for your comment.

Portal is one of my favorite games, so thank for reminding me of its wonderful game design.

Unfortunately, my manager told me to cut the corners, because jam games should be vertical slice of gameplay. It was decided: 1. mechanics with minimum viable tutorial; 2. exploring; 3. theme; were more important than voice over or openning cutscene. Also, my sound designer and my artist could do a better work! This would cover up dullness of gameplay, right?

The funny part is I am my owm product manager/game designer/developer/artist/SFXer.

And the only other people in our team are playtesters. They are not game designers, so they solved most if not all of my puzzles instead of dissecting them.

So thanks again for your professional opinion (it is not an often occurence - getting feedback from a real game studio founder)!

Happy to share!

lololol "Manager's" call is a good one; scope can kill jam games very easily. There's a cool concept here if you choose to keep exploring. Feel free to poke me if you ever want future feedback on it.

Still working on founding the studio. While I am a professional project manager, have studied/practiced game design with professionals in the industry, and made a bunch of games, I alas do not make money off game development. Yet. Working on it. Here's to chasing the dream, friend!